2 Corinthians 5:1-10

The topic of this week’s passage is death – the believer’s “moving house” from a temporary, increasingly decrepit tent to an eternal building in heaven. I need not fear death because God is the One who has prepared me for it. The guarantee that there is an eternal building for me is not any good work I have done (Is it enough?) but rather the Holy Spirit I have received. Thank God that you can face death, the collapse of your tent, with good courage.

If someone asked me, “Would you rather be at home in the body or at home with the Lord?” I know the right answer, the Sunday School answer. But what is the personal, fully honest answer? What do my day-to-day choices reveal? Lord, what things in this mortal life have such a strong pull on me that I prefer them to You?

We are saved by God’s grace, but this week’s passage also teaches human responsibility and accountability. When Paul says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, he is speaking to believers; we are not exempt. Pastor Dave spent time on 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 as a cross-reference, which reads in part:

Now if anyone builds on the foundation [Jesus Christ] with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Will you take five minutes today and meditate on this truth? It’s easy to read the words and fail to absorb their reality. In your imagination, see yourself before the Judge, a lifetime of your deeds and words and attitudes laid before Him, about to be ignited. Which ones will prove worthless? Which ones will emerge as eternally valuable? Lord, I know I can’t hide behind cheap grace, knowingly sinning and presuming You will forgive. Refine me; burn away what will not last. Train me and strengthen me so that my aim is always to please You.

Calvary Family

Please continue to pray for Cheryl and Leroy Sissom as they care for Cheryl’s 95-year-old father. Charlie is now on hospice and living in the Sissoms’ home. Pray for God’s comfort for Charlie as he prepares to trade his tent for an eternal heavenly building. Pray for endurance and ceaseless compassion for Cheryl as she serves as his primary caregiver.

Cary Oltmanns requests prayer for continued financial healing and provision of an inexpensive car to purchase.

Lift up our Fostering Hope used goods drive this Saturday. Pray that the donations we collect for the Foster Care Auxiliary’s thrift shop will be a genuine help and real encouragement to the Auxiliary and, by extension, to local foster families.

In Christ,
Carol Gilbert
Calvary Community Church of Brea